Hi all, sorry for the pretty long post here, but I have been frustrated about this for a while and I think I am finally about to reach my breaking point! So, I work for a well known hotel chain as a housekeeper, cleaning and fixing up the rooms after the guests check out. Let me give you some context to preface this post. As well as the housekeepers, there is also a different small group of workers who work downstairs in the laundry room. Their job is to take all of the dirty linen that the housekeepers change out (linen meaning bedding, but when I say linen it also counts as towels, hand towels, washcloths, etc.) and throw it in the washer/dryer and fold it afterwards so that the housekeepers can just grab clean linen on the fly for their rooms they are doing.
Well, in the mornings before me and the other housekeepers arrive to start our shifts, the laundry workers who clean the linen go around from room to room and strip the used sheets and pillow cases off of the beds to take down to wash. On first I didn't understand why they do this in the beginning of the day, because we have more than enough sheets already washed and ready in the mornings anyways, and they do not even grab the rest of the dirty linen (towels, ect.) that is in the bathroom, only stripping the beds down! It is just a waste of time for them, as we give them our dirty linen as we clean the rooms anyways. It also makes no sense because stripping the beds take like 5 seconds to do and is the least time-consuming thing to do when it comes to cleaning a room.
So since I have been working there, I have noticed that I find little to no tips, but a lot of the time I find random little piles of loose change on the countertops and tables. I thought that it was odd since so many people were leaving loose change and surely that many people are not forgetting their piles of change. After a while, I realized that it probably isn't random piles of forgotten loose change, but tips that were being left behind! So I put two and two together and figured that the laundry workers who strip the bedding are taking all the tips and dollar bills but just leaving the change behind! This became more evident as time went on because the only time I find actual tips are in the rooms that still have the used linen on the beds. Furthermore, sometimes I get special rooms where the guests check out later in the day in the middle of my shift, so I am able to go in right after they leave, and the room hasn't been touched yet. Those kinds of rooms are when I usually find the tips as well, because the laundry people haven't been in there to strip the bed and steal the tip!
Finally, a few days ago when I was clocking out and getting ready to go home another housekeeper was clocking out and made a remark about how she hopes she has enough gas money to get home. She told me that she used to be a housekeeper at a different hotel and would just save her tips and usually use them for gas money until payday came, saying that people tipped quite often and on some days she would even rake in up to 100 or 150 dollars worth of tips if she was lucky. But once she started working at this hotel, she rarely finds tips. I told her that I thought it was weird because I also barely find tips, only piles of change! She said the same thing about the change happens to her! I wanted to say that I think the laundry workers are taking the money and leaving the change, but to my surprise, she said it before I even had the chance to! I was relieved to finally see that somebody else had noticed this, and honestly thought I was going crazy for a while before she had told me that she also sees what is happening.
I let her know that it was not just a coincidence that it is happening to both of us, and that they are probably taking our tips that are left for us. I told her that the best thing we could do is just hope that we get more of the special rooms where the guests leave in the middle of our shift so that we can go in right after them and hopefully find a little extra money. Her response to that was that “I know it isn't a coincidence, because i finally caught their asses red-handed!” she went on to say that she had a customer who she had been helping with trash and extra towels for a few days, and that customer had happened to check out in the middle of her shift. Luckily, he managed to catch her while she was cleaning one of her rooms and he let her know that he left her a hefty tip in his room, and thanked her for all her help. After he left, she finished cleaning her room she was doing and went over to the customer's room to go grab her tip. She looked everywhere in that room, and there was not a tip to be found! But you know what was found? No linen! The bedding had been stripped, meaning that in the time where she was finishing her previous room up, one of the laundry people must've made their rounds again, took the bedding from that room, AND took the tip the customer promised! I felt so bad for her!
Since then, I have decided to check all my rooms when I get to work every morning before I even begin to do anything, to see if I can possibly find any tips left behind before the laundry people steal them. Unfortunately, most of the rooms are already stripped down and there is no tip to be seen. But, every time I get any of those special late rooms where the customer leaves in the middle of my shift, I have been setting alarms on my phone for a few minutes before they are due to leave, so I can possibly run to the rooms and check them before the laundry people go in there to strip the linen and strip me of my tip. And guess what? Most of the time there is a tip left in them, and the room is untouched! So it just goes to further show that clearly more times than none, these laundry workers are taking the tips that are meant for the housekeepers! I know it might seem petty, but those tips are not left for them! I know I have not worked their job, but they get to sit and wait while the linens are washing and sit while they are folding the linen, and we, the housekeepers, are the ones doing the backbreaking and grimey work cleaning these rooms up and prepping them. I feel like it is unfair, and it is straight up stealing our money! I do not mean to sound greedy or mean, but it does frustrate me to wonder how much extra cash I would be making every day if they were not taking the tips, or at least putting the tips in something like a tip pool for all of us! Considering that the job does not have the greatest pay, being able to get the tips would be huge for me.
This IS considered stealing money from the housekeepers, since it is not for them, right?? I want to address the issue to my boss, but I also do not know my boss extremely well since I do not see her during my day of cleaning, and I do not want her to think I am being petty, rude or accusatory; but mostly, I am scared to even address an issue like this in fear of getting in some kind of mess or some type of trouble! Maybe it is just my anxiety speaking, but what do you all think?? How should I address this issue? Please help !!!! Thank you !!